Investments greenlighted by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority in January reached P6.393 billion, surpassing its previous investment approvals by 83 percent in 2022.
“The PEZA Board has approved a total of 19 new and expansion projects of ecozone locators and developer/operators expected to bring in P6.393 billion investments. This is 83.69 percent higher compared to the P3.48 billion investments approved in the same period last year,” said PEZA Officer-in-Charge Tereso Panga during PEZA’s first board meeting of the year last 26 January.
From the said total, P2.277 billion of investments were approved for the 18 new and expansion projects of registered locator companies — 11 for export manufacturing enterprises, four for facilities enterprises, two for IT enterprises, and one for the domestic market enterprise.
On the other hand, one ecozone development project was approved and is expected to bring P4.116 billion in investments.
These projects will be in Makati City, Pasay City, CALABARZON, Cebu City and South Cotabato.
“With the positive start of the year, we are bullish with our outlook this year, targeting a 10 percent investment growth based on the initial locator sector targets,” expressed Panga.
PDP 2023-2028 support
Following the signing of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last 30 January of the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028, Panga said they are behind the President in attaining substantial and enduring growth and vowed to strengthen the implementation of the ecozone development program.
“With the inclusion of the ecozone development program in the new Philippine Development Plan, we are positive that more ecozones will be approved and created especially in the countryside,” he stressed.
“Ecozones can be shields to soften the landing of the headwinds, the external constraints, and all these global disruptions happening especially during this time. The other side to this is that ecozones can be economic drivers to accelerate economic recovery and growth,” he explained.
During the panel discussion, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry president George Barcelon highlighted the ease of doing business in PEZA and how it correlates to the country’s ability to attract investments. He likewise emphasized the reason behind investors wanting to invest in the country through PEZA, the need, he said, for LGUs to adopt the DNA of PEZA.
“I think our solution is for the local government to have the DNA of PEZA. If you talk about growth (and) inclusivity for the country, the growth should be throughout the Philippines and I think the local government plays a key role in making things easy for people to want to invest in the area of their jurisdiction,” expressed Barcelon.
“More than ever, we commit to strengthen our investment promotion and facilitation efforts by remaining true to our mandate and aggressively promoting the Philippines as an investment haven in Asia,” Panga added.